16 AutoCAD and Its Applications—Basics Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. Palettes Palettes, also known as modeless dialog boxes, control many AutoCAD functions. Palettes contain tool buttons, fl youts, drop-down lists, and many other features, such as list boxes and scroll bars. As with the ribbon, panels divide some palettes into groups of commands. Large palettes are divided into separate pages or windows, which you commonly access using tabs. Unlike dialog boxes, you do not need to close palettes in order to use other commands and work on the drawing. To display a palette, pick a palette button from the Palettes panel in the View ribbon tab. You can also display most palettes using palette-specifi c access techniques. For example, to access the Properties palette, pick the arrow in the lower-right corner of the Properties panel in the Home ribbon tab select an object, right-click, and select Properties or type PROPERTIES and press [Enter]. When you display a palette for the fi rst time, it is often in a fl oating state, although you can dock some palettes. Right-click on the palette title bar or pick the Properties button to select from a list of undocked palette control options. The Auto-hide option allows the palette to minimize when the cursor is away from the palette, conserving drawing space. Deselect the Allow Docking palette property or menu option to disable the ability to dock palettes. The Properties button or shortcut menu on some palettes includes other functions, such as the Transparency… option. Use the Transparency… option to make the palette transparent in order to view drawing geometry behind the palette. See Figure 1-15. PROFESSIONAL TIP P R OFESSIONAL TIP Resize a fl oating palette using the resizing arrows that appear when you move the cursor over the edge. Then pick the Auto-hide button to have quick access to the palette while displaying the largest possible drawing area. Exercise 1-7 www.g-wlearning.com/CAD/ Complete the exercise on the companion website. palette (modeless dialog box): Special type of window containing tool buttons and features common to dialog boxes. Palettes can remain open while other commands are active. list box: A framed area that contains a list of items or options from which to select. scroll bar: A bar tipped with arrow buttons used to scroll through a list of options or information. Figure 1-14. Right-click options for displaying and organizing ribbon elements. Selection Result Show Related Tool Palette Group Displays tool palette groups customized to associate with a ribbon tab. Tool Palette Group Allows you to select which related tool palette groups to show. Show Tabs Allows you to choose which tabs to display also available by right-clicking on a panel. Show Panels Allows you to select which panels to display also available by right-clicking on a panel. Show Panel Titles Uncheck to hide panel titles. Undock Changes the ribbon to a floating state. Double-click the ribbon title bar or drag and drop to dock the floating ribbon. Close Closes the ribbon. Use the RIBBON command to redisplay the ribbon.